Saturday morning, news broke that Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York City in connection with a domestic violence incident. TMZ had the first report (of course), and they set the tone for the weekend by calling the woman, who turned out to be Majors’ girlfriend, the “alleged victim”. When reporting on such a story, most people would write it out “the victim alleges that”, qualifying the actions, not the person, but not TMZ. We know this about them by now. 

 

Still, when the news broke the immediate online reaction was a combination of “ugh” and “I hope she’s got a support system in place”, because we all know how hard this will be on the woman who came forward (her name has not been confirmed as I write this). Jonathan Majors is THE breakout star of the moment, he’s Marvel’s new big bad, he’s in Creed III, he’s got Oscar bait Magazine Dreams due out later this year. He’s making a lot of money for a lot of people right now. So, we know how this will go.

And, indeed, over the weekend, the story developed exactly as expected. Majors’ reps immediately denied the report, saying that Majors “has done nothing wrong” and they “look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up”. Majors was charged on Saturday with strangulation, assault, and harassment, and he was released without bail. He’s expected in court in May, assuming the case even gets that far. Majors’ attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement on Sunday:

“We are quickly gathering and presenting evidence to the District Attorney with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently. This evidence includes video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations.”

 

The incident allegedly took place inside a taxicab, so presumably the “footage” in question is from the cab. But the kicker is the claim that they’ve already got the woman to recant her story, though the Manhattan DA’s office has not confirmed this. 

The instant full-court press that launched to protect Majors’ reputation from such an ugly allegation is hardly surprising. But while there are certainly people out there who will defend Majors—you do not have to look far in the trending tags to find them—there are also people pointing to a pattern of behavior. 

 

Apparently, Majors’ temper was another open secret, this time within the New York acting community. It is not on survivors to come forward if they’re not ready, it is not on secret keepers to tell stories not their own, but there’s a lot of yelling around the issue of warning people about abusers. I understand the frustration, we’re stuck in a loop of finding out people we thought were cool actually suck because there isn’t a siren system that goes off whenever an asshole enters the public consciousness. But remember that when there WAS an attempt to organize such an early warning system, the people behind the effort were punished for it. 

There is also the question of what the professional repercussions will be for Majors. The US Army has already suspended two commercials in their “Be All You Can Be” ad campaign in which Majors serves as a narrator, pending the investigation into the allegations. (The US military having an opinion on intimate violence is RICH.) But Marvel, who has Majors under contract for a multi-picture deal expected to last for at least the next three years, is silent so far. As is Searchlight Pictures, which recently bought Magazine Dreams for distribution and gave it a juicy December release date. I do not mention these things to buffer Majors from criticism, only to point out the powerful factions invested in keeping his nose clean, in public, at least. Again, he’s making a lot of people a lot of money, these are the forces working so fast to make these allegations go away.

 

Of course, people are comparing this to Warner Brothers’ situation regarding Ezra Miller. The What About-ism is real, but what’s really troubling is just the pattern of studios covering for stars accused of seriously bad, harmful behavior, in order to protect their investments in their billion-dollar franchises. People SHOULD matter more, but never do, it seems. This is how we ended up with the Weinstein scandal in the first place, studios and corporations protecting the guy who made them money (until he didn’t). It’s amazing all that we haven’t learned over the last few years, and it’s discouraging how it feels like we’re backsliding on any gains made regarding the treatment of women and survivors in these incidents. The whole thing is just f-cking depressing. 

We’ll get to watch the Protect Jonathan Majors’ Career campaign unfold over the coming days and weeks, but our thoughts are with the woman who came forward. I do hope she has a good support network in place. Jonathan Majors certainly does. 

The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides help and support for survivors of intimate partner violence. They can be reached at 800-799-7233. Here is a list of resources for survivors in Canada.